IWI Code of Professional Responsibility

Question 1

Preamble to the Code of Professional Responsibility

Answer 1

Purpose
Mission
Values
     1. Integrity
     2. Loyalty
     3. Objectivity
     4. Ethical Conduct

Question 2

Institute Code of Professional Responsibility

Answer 2

1. Act in the best interest of the client.
2. Disclose services to be offered and provided, related charges, and compensation.
3. Disclose the existence of actual, potential, and/or perceived conflicts of interest and relevant financial relationships, direct and/or indirect. Take appropriate action to resolve or manage any such conflicts.
4. Provide clients information needed to make informed decisions.
5. Respond to client inquiries and instructions appropriately, promptly, completely, and truthfully.
6. Maintain confidentiality of client information, however acquired, consistent with legal and regulatory requirements and firm policies.
7. Provide competent service by truthful representation of competency, maintenance and/or development of professional capabilities, and, when appropriate, the recommendation of other professionals.
8. Comply with legal and regulatory requirements related to one’s practice of his or her profession.
9. Maintain a high level of ethical conduct.

Question 3

Code of Professional Responsibility: 3. Conflicts of interest

Answer 3

• “Actual, potential, and/or perceived conflicts of interest” must be disclosed
• “Relevant financial relationships, direct or indirect” must be disclosed
• A “financial relationship” means any arrangement or transaction related to the purchase and/or sale of goods and/or services between a third party and the Institute professional.
• “Direct” financial relationships are those paid for by a client.
• “Indirect” financial relationships are those for which the Institute professional receives some form of compensation but that is not paid directly by the client. ——Only “relevant” financial arrangements need to be disclosed under Principle 3, and “relevant” in this context means material to or having an effect on a client’s decision to undertake the transaction and/or engage the Institute professional.

Question 4

Code of Professional Responsibility: 5. Respond to inquiries and instructions

Answer 4

Under Principle 5, “respond” means to provide or refuse to provide (for good reason), orally or in writing, information sought by client inquiries and/or to take or refuse to take action (for good reason) in accordance with a client instruction.

Question 5

Code of Professional Responsibility: 6. Maintain confidentiality

Answer 5

Highlight box: The Institute professional should be aware of the identity of his or her client because client information may not be shared with non clients, even if such non clients are family members, partners, associates, spouses, advisors, lawyers, or accountants. Client information may be shared with non clients if the client has authorized the Institute professional to divulge such information to a specifically authorized person. Under best practices, oral authorizations should be confirmed or otherwise memorialized in writing as soon as possible after the authorization is given.

Question 6

Code of Professional Responsibility: 9. Ethical conduct

Answer 6

Principle 9 requires more than technical compliance with rules and regulations. An Institute professional shall not only abide by all applicable laws and regulations, including, among other things, those of Institute, but the Institute professional also shall not engage in activities that call into question his or her “ethical” behavior.
Examples of unethical behavior may include, but are not limited to:
• Acts resulting in conviction of a felony;
• Acts resulting in conviction of a misdemeanor involving moral turpitude (e.g., lying, cheating, stealing) or violence;
• Conduct that is damaging to the public or any member of the public; and
• Conduct that compromises the integrity of the Institute, any of the Institute’s marks, or the financial services profession.

Question 7

“Disclose”

Answer 7

“Disclose” means to provide information orally or in writing.

Question 8

“Client”

Answer 8

The meaning of “client” depends upon the Institute professional’s role and duties. In general, the “client” is the person with whom the Institute professional interacts. The role of some Institute professionals is to provide investment and/or wealth management consulting or advice for pension funds, endowments, families, individuals, or other asset owners. Any such persons to or for whom consulting or advisory services are provided is regarded as a “client.”

Question 9

“Serious Crime”

Answer 9

Serious Crime — (1) any felony; (2) any lesser crime, a necessary element of which as determined by its statutory or common law definition involves misrepresentation, fraud, extortion, misappropriation, or theft; and/or (3) an attempt or conspiracy to commit such crime, or solicitation of another to commit such crime.

Question 10

Professional Review Board

Answer 10

The Institute has established a PRB to review, investigate, and rule on violations of the Code, Rules, and/or other standards

Question 11

Grounds for Discipline

Answer 11

a. Violation of the Code, Rules, or other standards
b. Violation of federal or state rule or rules of self-regulating bodies in respect to the financial services industry;
c. Violation of the criminal statutes of any state or the United States for commission of a Serious Crime.
d. Any act or omission that results in the suspension or termination of a professional license, designation, or certification by a local, state, federal, or private licensing, designation or certification authority or organization;
e. Violation of the rules of FINRA or other financial services self-regulatory organization;
f. Failure to respond to a disciplinary petition or a request of the Hearing Panel, PRB, the Institute Appeals Board, and/or the Institute staff or failure to comply with an order of a Hearing Panel, the PRB, and/or the Institute Appeals Board;
g. The submission of false or misleading statements to the Institute, a Hearing Panel, the PRB, and/or the Institute Appeals Board; and
h. Violation of the License Agreement between the Institute and the Licensee.

Question 12

Initiation of Disciplinary Proceedings

Answer 12

If the Institute is notified in writing of a complaint against a Licensee or Candidate, the Institute staff shall have sixty (60) days from that date to research the complaint.

• Within the sixty (60) day period, the Institute staff may prepare and send a draft petition or other recommendation to Legal Counsel for review and approval.
• Legal Counsel shall have sixty (60) days to review the petition or other recommendation and determine if IM the Institute CA staff should forward the petition to the PRB for initial review.

Question 13

Professional Review Board (PRB) initial review

Answer 13

Any of these time periods may be extended by the PRB upon good cause shown.
The PRB shall undertake an initial review of each disciplinary petition or other recommendation forwarded by the Institute staff.
-The PRB has sixty (60) days from receipt of the petition or other recommendation to make its determination.
If the PRB finds a disciplinary petition or other recommendation establishes good cause for discipline, it shall either: (a) in the event the PRB determines that the petition and supporting exhibits establish, without any reasonable grounds for dispute, that grounds for discipline exist and that the appropriate remedy is a
private censure, then the PRB may authorize the issuance of a private letter informing the Respondent of these conclusions and that a private censure would be the remedy.

Question 14

Hearing panel

Answer 14

The Respondent shall be offered the opportunity to have a hearing in lieu of the summary private censure; or (b) appoint a three-member Hearing Panel to hear and review evidence with respect to the petition or other recommendation. No member of the PRB or the Institute Board of Directors or Appeals Board may serve on a
Hearing Panel.

Question 15

Hearing panel timing

Answer 15

a. An answer to the disciplinary petition shall be filed with the Institute staff no later than thirty (30) days after the mailing date of the disciplinary petition to Respondent.
b. During the period beginning thirty (30) days after the mailing date of the disciplinary petition to Respondent and ending ninety (90) days thereafter, the Hearing Panel may request that the Respondent produce documents concerning the alleged infraction and any facts, claims, or defenses asserted in the answer.
c. The hearing date shall be set no later than ninety (90) days after the last day of the Document Production Period.

testimony presented shall be under oath. Within sixty (60) days of the last day of the hearing, the Hearing Panel shall issue a report of its findings of fact and conclusions recommended to the PRB. The PRB shall review the Hearing Panel’s report and proposed order and issue a final order within thirty (30) days after receiving the report and proposed order. The PRB’s final order shall be sent to Respondent by certified mail within ten (10) business days of issuance.

Question 16

Failure to Respond to the Petition

Answer 16

shall be deemed a default by the Respondent.

Question 17

Remedial action

Answer 17

public or private censure, suspension and revocation

All remedial action, including private censures, shall be a permanent portion of the Respondent’s record and shall be maintained in the Respondent’s file at the Institute

Question 18

Appeals

Answer 18

A final order of the PRB is subject to review by the Institute Appeals Board. Any discipline imposed by the PRB is stayed during the pendency of a timely filed appeal.
An appeal from a final order of the PRB must be filed within sixty (60) days of the date of the order.
The Institute Appeals Board will review an appeal within sixty (60) days after receipt of the appeal.
The decision of the Institute Appeals Board is final and shall be transmitted to Respondent via certified mail within thirty (30) days after the date on which the Institute Appeals Board makes its decision.

Question 19

Failure to produce documents

Answer 19

Any party who fails to produce documents requested by the other party during the
Document Production Period shall not be permitted to use said documents for any purpose in proceedings governed by these Rules.

Question 20

Reportable event timing

Answer 20

• being a defendant or respondent in any self-regulatory organization (e.g., FINRA), government agency, criminal, and/or civil complaint, investigation, mediation, or arbitration, every Licensee or Candidate must notify the Institute in writing of such action within sixty (60) days.
• Every Licensee or Candidate, upon being convicted of a Serious Crime or being the subject of a Professional Loss or Suspension must notify the Institute in writing of such conviction, loss, or suspension within sixty (60) days after receipt of notification by the Licensee or Candidate of such conviction, loss, or suspension
• PRB may, in its discretion, issue an order to show cause why the Licensee’s license to use an Institute Designation should not be immediately suspended or the Candidate should not immediately be terminated from the applicable Institute program. Failure to respond to the order to show cause within ten (10) days of receipt may result in immediate suspension or termination of the Licensee or Candidate.

Question 21

Reinstatement after suspension

Answer 21

Unless otherwise provided by a PRB order or order of the Institute Appeals Board issued after an appeal, within thirty (30) days of the expiration of the suspension term,
a Respondent may file a petition for reinstatement.

Question 22

Correct use of marks:

Answer 22

CIMA®

Certified Investment Management Analyst®

Question 23

Basic Rules for using the Institute’s Certification Marks

Answer 23

• Always use the short form certification mark in all capital letters with no other punctuation and always capitalize each word in the fully written certification mark
• Always use the appropriate symbol
• Always use the Institute’s Certification Marks as ADJECTIVES

Question 24

Acceptable adjectives with marks

Answer 24

“designee,” “certificant,” “professional,” “practitioner,” “consultant,” “advisor,” “analyst,” “holder,” “certification,” “designation,” “mark” or when referring to the document received upon certification, “certificate.”